The golden goose is tearing itself apart over self-interest

Mired in court cases, the Premier League is unravelling despite long having been the envy of other competitions

- MIGUEL DELANEY

When leading football figures met at the European Club Association congress in Athens last week, many English-based executives were bristling at the Manchester City developments.

The email from the club's general counsel, Simon Cliff, was still causing agitation.

That made it slightly awkward when they had to greet ECA board member Ferran Soriano, who is also City's chief executive officer, but meetings were cordial. A theme of these sorts of stories is executives speaking most candidly in private. Those from other leagues, however, were enjoying the tension. Some spoke about "getting out the popcorn".

Many of those same figures have long watched the Premier League with envy, especially the sense of spectacle that brings in billions more in revenue than any other domestic competition.

LaLiga president Javier Tebas told this writer's new book, States of Play, that it is uncatchable.

And yet here it is, unravelling. As one senior official wondered this week: "What does it say about modern football when the Premier League, with its golden goose formula, is tearing itself apart?" That formula, however, was always going to produce something like this. There are too many competing interests, on a scale far greater than football can handle.

That's what this really says about modern football. The sport is at a point where it is a "mature" market with little remaining room for "growth", and its biggest powers are fighting over who owns the game. The City case is just another battle in that war.

It is currently split between capitalist interests on the one side and state/political interests on the other, but it isn't always so clear-cut. Private equity-owned Chelsea acting as a witness for City is proof of that, even as the outcome of shareholder loans may affect the London club negatively.